Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), in a letter to John Magufuli, President of Tanzania has expressed concern over the detention of two staffers of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in Tanzania.

PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali condemned the unfair detention of both Muthoki Mumo and Angela Quintal and called on the Tanzanian authorities to immediately and independently investigate this matter. PPF also urged the Tanzanian government to provide and free environment to journalists, who can fulfill their journalistic duties without any fear of reprisal.

According to CPJ, Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, and Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative were arrested on November 7 from their hotel in Dar es Salaam by the immigration and security officers. They were taken to an unidentified place and questioned about their work. After several hours of detention, they were released and allowed to go back to their hotel. Their passports were also returned back.

During the interrogation the officers seized the passports, mobile phones and computers of both Mumo and Quintal. During the detention a fake tweet was posted from Quintal’s twitter account which stated that both CPJ staffers had been released. Continuous attempts were also made to access the email id of Quintal. Mumo and Quintal have safely left the country.

The CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon stated, “Angela Quintal and Muthoki Mumo traveled to Tanzania to find out the challenges that Tanzanian press faces and to inform the global public. It is deeply ironic that through their unfair and offensive detention of our colleagues, Tanzanian authorities have made their work much easier. It is now clear to anyone who followed the latest developments that Tanzanian journalists work in a climate of fear and intimidation.”